The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-01-28

iailed to produce to themselves satis-
Factory rate of transportation, therefore
the strong arm of the government must
be laid upon the railroad corporations,
but in the absence of any proof to show
, that government control has ever bene-
fitted the people in such matters the pro-
position must be regarded as only ex-
detrimental. Any attempt on the part
OF the National government TO take pos
session of the property of any railroad
or other corporations property, would
be an act of despctism which would
shock the moral sense of the American
people. But the government would
have the same right TO do that, that 1t
would have to dictate to corporations
what it should charge for transporting
freight over its road. But something
must be DONE" Something has been
done. Congress has passed the Inter-
State Commerce Bill, and already there
has sprung up controversy as to the
meaning ofsome of its provisions, par
ticularly on the long and short haul.
Our Minnesota Legislature passed and
forwarded to Congress joint memorial,
asking that clause be inserted prohibit
ing railroads from charging more per
ton per mile for long than for short
haul. The reverse ofthis has been usu-
ally claimed should be the case. As ex-
planned by Senator Pope the meaning
or intend of the memorial was that on
freight for instance from Chicago to
points in Minnesota shall not be charged
higher rate per ton per mile to other
points of equal or greater distance than
is charged to Winona or st. Paul. But
rs the memorial reads, the railroads it
seems may increase the rate of freight
on long haul transportation equal to the
rates on short haul. This would by no
means be satisfactory to the people of
Minnesota or the West, who are chiefly
interested in long hauling. Their ex-
ports seek a distant market. Their i'm
ports are mainly from other States east
and south, and an increase ofthe freight
on long hauls decreases the value of
their exports to the producers and adds
to the value of the imports received.
The meaning of that clause relating to
long and short haul in the Cullom- Rea-
gan bill passed by Congress seems TO be
in dispute. 1t seems unnecessary that
there should have been any ambiguous
language In the national law. The COM
bined wisdom of the Senate and House
of Representatives ought to have been
sufficient to devise bill that would
have left the matter so PLAIN that it
would not be necessary to call upon the
Supreme Court to decide what the MEM
bers of the legislative branch of the gov
eminent did mean. And the people of
the interior of Minnesota did not desire
that the railroad corporations should be
permitted TO raise the tariff of freights
on through freight to the rates charged
on short distances. Had the Congress
sional bill provided that railroads carry
ing freight from one state into another
should not charge higher rate per ton
per mile in one State than the other on
any through or connected line of road,
1t would have left the question seeming
~ more plain. This railroad problem
seems to be more important question
than it is generally regarded, that its re-
latlons extend to points not now being
agitated is doubtless tue. Their rela-
tions are not confined exclusively to the
shippers. They extend to the State that
charters them and taxes their property;
to their employees; to the owners of real
estate through which they must purchase
right of way, even to legislators and
editors who perhaps would take as an
insult the proffer of free pass, but
would not blush at purchasing mileage
ticket at half the usual rates. In the
multiplicity of our care for the railroads
we should not entirely forget the vast
benefit they have been to this great
West in which we live. How much they
have contributed to opening vast em-
pire in the western dbut few years
ago. wilds of the coptinent and it should
not be forgotten that the competition
between rival roads has already reduced
the~Tates nearly or quite 80 per cent
in the last 10 years, and while regulat-
ing the rates of freight and other BUSH
ness of the railroads, due consideration
should be given to the men who have
invested their money in constructing
them. They have rights to be respect
ed. The people who love justice and
fair dealing have no desire to see an
| other exhibition of Whitney VS.. John
Roach despotism, even though exercised
on the railroads, and if Minnesota's R.
X. Commissioners, as one expressed it a
few years ago, attempt to shake the
railroads over hill" it is to be devout-
ly hoped they will look well to their
own footing. 1t would be a terrible loss
to the State if they should slip in them
selves.
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